OUTER SUBURBS 306 – PAVEMENT AFTER RAIN

 

 

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Out walking, and looking down – a gate’s shadow on a pavement, after rain.  

The pale linear structure towards upper right is the kerb along the pavement’s edge, and right of this is the road surface.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.

Technique: TG-5 at 25mm (equiv); 400 ISO; spot metering for the highlights; Lightroom, starting at the Modern 03 profile; south Bristol; 16 Jan 2021.
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ARCHIVE: LOOKING AT CARS 39 – WHITE GLOVE

 

 

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Chaos, close in, with a wide angle lens: raindrops on the bonnet, blown highlights, saturated colours and a cavalier disregard for the horizontal.

The Looking at Cars series: looking back through the nine years of the FATman Photos archives (and some new images too), I’m posting pictures of cars in various contexts and styles.  These Looking at Cars posts are here: 1 (with context); 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 .  Each post will open in a separate window.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.

Technique: X-T2 with 10-24 Fujinon lens at 36mm (equiv); 200 ISO; Lightroom, using the Velvia/Vivid film simulation; Color Efex Pro 4; Capture NX2; outside Hart’s Bakery, Temple Meads, Bristol; 28 Apr 2017.

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ARCHIVE: LOOKING AT CARS 38 – RUSH HOUR (MONO)

 

 

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Morning rush hour:  alone amongst a torrent of temporarily stationary metal.

The Looking at Cars series: looking back through the nine years of the FATman Photos archives (and some new images too), I’m posting pictures of cars in various contexts and styles.  These Looking at Cars posts are here: 1 (with context); 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 .  Each post will open in a separate window.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.

Technique: X-T1 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 300mm (equiv); 400 ISO; Lightroom, using the Velvia/Vivid film simulation; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Cool Tones 2 preset, giving the image the look of Fuji Neopan Acros 100 black and white film, and adding a strong selenium tone; Victoria Street, central Bristol; 11 Nov 2016.
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ARCHIVE 596 – QUEEN CHARLOTTE STREET (MONO)

 

 

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Morning sunlight across a rough façade.  I’m down an alleyway in the city centre and the décor is, shall we say, functional.  Lots of rough texture, no need for the expense of glamorous, smooth surfaces here.  And off the main road a little, out of view a bit, so plain bars to deter those who, seized by an excess of entrepreneurial zeal, might not want to enter through the front door.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.

Technique: X-T2 with 55-200 Fujinon lens at 145mm (equiv); 800 ISO; Lightroom; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Architectural preset; Queen Charlotte Street, central Bristol; 8 July 2017.

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ARCHIVE: LOOKING AT CARS 37 – MISTY MORNING

 

 

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Misty early morning in the street, the people sleeping and the cars silent, dark and still >>> LOL! which is a very poor attempt at Dylan Thomas!!!  What about something from The Master himself then, from Under Milk Wood, very certainly one of my most favourite books in this whole world, and an endless source of both awe and inspiration:

Time passes.  Listen.  Time passes.

Come closer now.

Only you can hear the houses sleeping in the streets in the slow deep and silent black, bandaged night.

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Only you can hear and see, behind the eyes of the sleepers, the movements and countries and mazes and colours and dismays and rainbows and tunes and wishes and flight and fall and despairs and big seas of their dreams.

Click onto the “early morning” tag (below) to see more images from the early hours of the day. 

The Looking at Cars series: looking back through the nine years of the FATman Photos archives (and some new images too), I’m posting pictures of cars in various contexts and styles.  These Looking at Cars posts are here: 1 (with context); 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 .  Each post will open in a separate window.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.

Technique: TG-5 at 80mm (equiv); 6400 ISO; Lightroom, starting at the Modern 03 profile; south Bristol; 30 Nov 2020.
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OUTER SUBURBS 305 – SUNRISE

 

 

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As always, the Natural World, nothing beats it – and with a touch of lens flare left in just to annoy those who think such things important …  😎

Click onto the “early morning” tag (below) to see more images from the early hours of the day. 

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – certainly recommended.

Technique: TG-5 at 100mm (equiv); 800 ISO; spot metering; Lightroom, starting at the Modern 03 profile; south Bristol; 11 Sept 2020.
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OUTER SUBURBS 304 – WALKING THE STREETS AT NIGHT’S END (MONO)

 

 

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Walking the misty, deserted streets at night’s end, listening to the silence, watching the foxes making for their daytime lairs, passing the stolid ranks of cold cars – and very much having the feeling of enjoying the very simple and uncomplicated moment, of being glad to be up and about … of seeing and savouring the world at the antisocial hours that only a few early joggers and dog walkers know.

Click onto the “early morning” tag (below) to see more images from the early hours of the day. 

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.

Technique: TG-5 at 100mm (equiv); 3200 ISO; spot metering; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Portrait profile; Silver Efex Pro 2, starting at the Cool Tones 2 preset and adding a tone; south Bristol; 22 Nov 2020.
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ARCHIVE 593 – HER VERY FIRST WRITTEN WORDS (MONO)

 

 

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We were visiting friends when their elder daughter, whom we like very much, suddenly started asking her parents about how words are written.  She knew how letters and combinations of letters sound and how they look when written down, but she’d never equated the two before.

A few words of explanation from her parents and –   to the vast astonishment of everyone present – she just started phonetically pronouncing words and then writing them all over large pieces of scrap paper on the floor!

I had my camera to hand, and a unique occasion was recorded.  This is not a good picture photographically, but in this sort of instance that doesn’t worry me at all – and I love her tentative, slightly doubtful expression.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window.

Technique: D700 with 105mm Nikkor lens; 3200 ISO; south Bristol; 26 Apr 2009.

UPDATE: yes, photographically, in technical terms, this is not a good picture.  But it is nevertheless a very valuable picture, and especially so to the girl and her family – here is a fundamental achievement on her part, a fundamental moment in her life.  Which feeds into one of my core beliefs about photography – that by far the most important aspect of an image is its content – have interesting / striking / meaningful content, and the technicalities come a very, very long way second.

So, ok, let’s turn this on its head.  Here’s a meaningful image that is technically imperfect.  Who would rather have a meaningless image that is technically perfect? .

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ARCHIVE: LOOKING AT CARS 36

 

 

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The Looking at Cars series: looking back through the nine years of the FATman Photos archives (and some new images too), I’m posting pictures of cars in various contexts and styles.  These Looking at Cars posts are here: 1 (with context); 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 .  Each post will open in a separate window.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.

Technique: TG-5 at 100mm (equiv); 800 ISO; Lightroom, starting at the B&W 12 profile; south Bristol; 13 Oct 2020.
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OUTER SUBURBS 303 – DAWN BREAKING, LATE DECEMBER

 

 

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Dawn breaking on Boxing Day, just after rain.

And almost invisible in the murk up to the left of the light – can you see it??? –  a large gull glides in above the rooftops, calling noisily to its companions in the dark sky as it starts its day above the suburbs, searching for the edible scraps and refuse that we have discarded.

Click onto the “early morning” tag (below) to see more images from the early hours of the day. 

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – certainly recommended.

Technique: TG-5 at 25mm (equiv); 1600 ISO; spot metering; Lightroom, starting at the Camera Portrait profile; south Bristol; 26 Dec 2020.
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